WE RECYCLE:

Glass beverage containers, bottles, and jars of any color

WE DO NOT RECYCLE:

• plate/window glass
• ceramics
• drinking glasses or dishes
• mirrors
• auto glass
• laboratory beakers or test tubes
• light bulbs
• fluorescent tubes are recyclable but are classified as hazardous waste and must be recycled separately from our regular glass recycling (see Fluorescents)

HOW & WHERE TO RECYCLE:

• Recyclable glass should be put in recycling containers marked "Glass" and/or "Plastic."
• In August of 2001, UST began comingling its plastic and glass recycling and having the processing of the two commodities done off-site by an area vendor.
• Do not break the glass if possible. Broken glass presents a safety hazard to our recycling team and custodial staff.
• All lids should be removed from the bottles and liquids emptied before recycling.
• Glass should be clean: free of food residue or liquid.
• Labels do not need to be removed.
• All colors are recycled.

FACTS ABOUT GLASS:

• Container glass is 100% recyclable; it never wears out and can be recycled again and again.
• According to the EPA WasteWise, the energy saved from recycling one glass bottle will operate a 100-watt light bulb for four hours.
• It takes approximately 1 million years for a glass bottle to break down at the landfill.
• Producing glass from virgin materials requires 30 percent more energy than producing it from crushed, used glass. -EPA WasteWise
• According to the Glass Packaging Institute, in 2003, glass made up 5.3% of the municipal solid waste stream by weight, and of that, a full 22% of glass containers were recycled.
• According to the Environmental Protection Agency, in 2003, 12.5 million tons of glass was generated in the United States and 2.4 million tons of glass was recovered through recycling giving a recovery rate of 18.8%.
• According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2004, the U.S. produced 241.3 million glass containers. In 2003, the total production of glass containers amounted to 244.2 million.
• In 1995 in the U.S., post-consumer glass made up more than 25% of the content of new bottles.
• "Refilling glass bottles that weigh 10.5 ounces 25 times uses 93% less glass than packaging beverages in one-way glass bottles that wiegh 5.9 ounces and hold the same volume of liquid. Likewise a refillable bottle that makes 25 trips consumes 93% less energy than extracting raw materials and manufacturing new glass bottles."  from Choose to Reuse by Nikki & David Goldbeck, 1995
• The glass industry produces 36 billion containers annually. In 1996, there were more than 500,000 tons of glass refillable containers in use.
• Nearly 650,000 tons of recovered glass in 1996 was used in non-container applications such as glassphalt, road filler and fiberglass.
• Over a ton of resources is saved for every ton of glass recycled -- 1,330 pounds of sand, 433 pounds of soda ash, 433 pounds of limestone, and 151 pounds of feldspar. Also a ton of glass produced from raw materials creates 384 pounds of mining waste. Using 50% recycled glass cuts the waste by 75%.
• "The price of recyclable glass is determined mainly by the batch cost of competitive virgin raw materials, principally silica, soda ash and limestone.  With the cost of these feedstocks declining over the past several years, cullet suppliers have seen lower prices for recovered glass." -Jerry Powell, "Is the glimmer in glass recycling gone forever?" Resource Recycling, Sept 2001
• Recycling glass saves landfill space, reduces pollution caused by the mining of raw materials, reduces air pollution from higher furnace temperatures needed to make virgin glass, and extends furnace life.
• Glass is most valuable when separated by color in order to increase its value to recycling markets. The U.S. consumer has been resistant to a "mixed-color" container bottle so bottlers want clear glass. Clear glass is the least resistant to contamination from brown and green glass. As a result, a technology has developed of glass optical sorters that can sort glass with optical scanners and precision air jets. 
• If you travel down the nations highways and biways, odds are increasing that where the rubber meets the road it will be doing so over glassphalt. Increasingly, recycled glass is being used in place of sand to make asphalt. Also recycled glass is being used in some areas instead of crushed stone several layers below the road surface.
• Processed glass or glass sand is being used very successfully in filtration systems. Glass sand performs better than regular sand because of its angularity. Water goes through glass sand faster than regular sand. It filters just as effectively as sand but with much less clogging.
• Recycled glass is now being used instead of sand in sandblasting. It is environmentally safer because there is no harmful silica dust released by glass as there is by the use of regular sand. Silica dust is a health hazard for sandblasters since it greatly increases the risk of silicosis, a chronic lung condition.

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